In each cell of a lead acid storage battery, there is a group of elements known as a battery plate group. This group consists of a sandwich-like arrangement of lead plates and porous separators arranged alternately. The present invention relates to the initial stacking of these elements.
In the battery making art, the assembling of battery plates and separators for forming into groups and subsequent disposition into battery cells has, for a long time, been accomplished by hand. Such manual assembly techniques have not always been satisfactory, due, for example, to the possibilities of human error in stacking assemblies having either too many or too few plates. In other instances, the separators may be provided in inadvertently inverted form; a condition which may not be detected until a much later stage of battery assembly, or even thereafter, wherein detection only comes to light as an incidence of battery malfunction.
In the more recent past, apparatus and techniques have been proposed for mechanically handling battery elements, particularly battery plates, and in some instances the separators that are used for disposition between the plates, whereby stacks of alternate plates and separators are to be deposited onto a conveyor. Some proposed techniques have involved strike arm mechanical feeders, whereby an arm, lever or the like, would directly engage the plates or separators and push them out of a hopper onto a conveyor. The use of such techniques, would risk the possibility of damage to the rather fragile plates, and even to the separators. This is particularly true as the plates become thinner and thinner; particularly in the case of separators wherein advances in material construction permit the use of separators far thinner than separators heretofore used. By mechanically striking a separator or plate from the bottom of a hopper and causing the same to be ejected onto a conveyor, not only would limitations be imposed upon the type of plates and separators that are susceptible to such treatment, but physical damage to the materials being handled would, most like, be encountered.